Do Its Financials Have Any Role To Play In Driving FONAR Corporation's (NASDAQ:FONR) Stock Up Recently?

Most readers would already be aware that FONAR's (NASDAQ:FONR) stock increased significantly by 8.3% over the past month. We wonder if and what role the company's financials play in that price change as a company's long-term fundamentals usually dictate market outcomes. Particularly, we will be paying attention to FONAR's ROE today.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. In simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

Check out our latest analysis for FONAR

How To Calculate Return On Equity?

Return on equity can be calculated by using the formula:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for FONAR is:

13% = US$17m ÷ US$126m (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2020).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.13 in profit.

Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. Based on how much of its profits the company chooses to reinvest or "retain", we are then able to evaluate a company's future ability to generate profits. Assuming all else is equal, companies that have both a higher return on equity and higher profit retention are usually the ones that have a higher growth rate when compared to companies that don't have the same features.

A Side By Side comparison of FONAR's Earnings Growth And 13% ROE

To start with, FONAR's ROE looks acceptable. Further, the company's ROE is similar to the industry average of 13%. Despite the modest returns, FONAR's five year net income growth was quite low, averaging at only 4.1%. A few likely reasons that could be keeping earnings growth low are - the company has a high payout ratio or the business has allocated capital poorly, for instance.

As a next step, we compared FONAR's net income growth with the industry and were disappointed to see that the company's growth is lower than the industry average growth of 15% in the same period.

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company's expected earnings growth (or decline). By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. One good indicator of expected earnings growth is the P/E ratio which determines the price the market is willing to pay for a stock based on its earnings prospects. So, you may want to check if FONAR is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is FONAR Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

FONAR doesn't pay any dividend currently which essentially means that it has been reinvesting all of its profits into the business. However, this doesn't explain the low earnings growth the company has seen. Therefore, there might be some other reasons to explain the lack in that respect. For example, the business could be in decline.

Summary

On the whole, we do feel that FONAR has some positive attributes. However, given the high ROE and high profit retention, we would expect the company to be delivering strong earnings growth, but that isn't the case here. This suggests that there might be some external threat to the business, that's hampering its growth. While we won't completely dismiss the company, what we would do, is try to ascertain how risky the business is to make a more informed decision around the company. You can see the 1 risk we have identified for FONAR by visiting our risks dashboard for free on our platform here.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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